Jacko

 Game 37: Leafs vs. Jets

Simon B

The Leafs have played the Jets seven times this season and they've alternated victories. If things were to continue on this track the Jets are due to win tonight. However there is a major difference this time around, Jack Campbell is making his first back-to-back start of the season. Campbell is 7-0-0 coming into this game and had been the reason for many of the Leafs wins when he's between the pipes.

Once again, Sheldon Keefe is able to roll out the same lineup again and that's an important factor at this point in the season. Hopefully, injuries are going to stay as limited as possible and they can get the chemistry with this group as good as they can before the playoffs.

The Game

Last game I spoke about how Zach Hyman was a player who could make just about any line he plays on so much better. While Ray Ferraro (TSN Analyst) called out Hyman for his tenacity,  the NHL is full of tenacious players  Beyond raw tenacity, Hyman has the unique gift of being able to draw the attention of the opposition's defense towards him and away from Matthews and Marner. And every time he does that, numbers 34 and 16 become just that much more dangerous.

That Hyman sidebar spotlights why he's such an important member of this team, and he shone early in the first as he generated three or four grade-A chances in front of Hellebuyck's net. In the wake of Winnipeg’s uncharacteristically flat game on Wednesday, they came out much more energetically this time. The first 10 minutes of the game were fairly even but after that, the ice tilted in the Jet’s favor. 

The Jets dominated play for the second half of the period but Jack Campbell was really solid, making a few huge saves to keep things scoreless. Those are the moments where I think that he could really be the starter for the near future if they don't resign Andersen (which I don't think they should but I’ll write about that another time). The game stayed scoreless after the first 20 minutes of action.

I was a bit worried that the Jets would keep on dominating in the second because of the amount of confidence they were playing with in the first (especially at the end of the period). Toronto was able to weather the storm. Even better, they were the better team as the frame began. The Leafs’ defense made a major contribution to that, with a lot more offensive action than we’ve seen all year from this team (which currently ranks second-last in goals-by-defensemen in the division). The effort paid off. Zach Bogosian was looping around the faceoff circle and gave a drop-pass to Dermott, who sniped a shot low blocker-side on Hellebuyck. When it went in, he had a delightfully surprised look on his face because, first, he doesn't score often, and second, he thought somebody else tipped it in, but all his teammates pointed at him as if to say "yeah, you scored that!"

Just like last game, though, the Leafs allowed a goal right after they scored one. A two-on-one for Winnipeg saw Andrew Copp bury a one-timer past Campbell to tie it up. There really wasn't much that Campbell could do on this one. If I had to blame that on someone, I’d point the finger at the Leafs’ defense for not coming back properly, and leaving their netminder to dry. The second ended 1-1 and it would all come down to the third.

I have to say that the third period has one of the most boring periods of hockey I’ve seen in months. Jack Campbell made some outstanding saves for the Leafs, but the Leafs’ offense went so flat that I was surprised that the game even got to Overtime.

In the extra frame, when Winnipeg's Kyle Connor took a tripping penalty fully expected the Leafs would close it out. However, their power play has been atrocious, going 0-26, and even in overtime, they looked pretty bleak. It wasn't a really typical Toronto-type power play, as there weren't many chances on either end and for the first time this season, the Leafs faced a shootout.

I'm not really sure how to describe a shootout other than this: Jason Spezza faked out Hellebuyck to score on the Leafs’ first chance, and then no one scored again. The Leafs came away with the 2-1 shootout win.

The Wrap

I'm not a fan of the shootout at all. I think  NHL games should keep going 3 on 3 sudden death until someone scores for entertainment value. I'm sure most hockey fans can agree with me on that one. But the Leafs got the W and are now 4 points up on the Jets (with one more game played) which puts them into first place in the North division. At this point in the season, you need to get wins any way you possibly can, so I'm all for it. Now that the Leafs got 4 out of 4 points in this two-game set, they can head to Calgary with confidence and hope to pick up some more good points against the Flames (who are not nearly as good as the Leafs this year).

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